Throwing mistake gives Central victory over Horizon

A sacrifice bunt, passed ball and an overthrow — it was an interesting way the Central High School baseball team manufactured the winning run on Friday in the Bill Fanning Classic.

With runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh after a Kyle Rowe bunt and the passed ball, Central’s Frank DiThomas hit a sharp ground ball to Horizon third baseman Danny Wise, who threw home to get pinch-runner Jacob Rubalcaba out.

Then the game-winning mistake: Horizon catcher Kaleb Hawkins overthrew first base, and Rowe scored the winning run in a 4-3 victory at Canyon View Park.

” I knew (DiThomas) just had to get the ball in play and let things happen,” Rowe said.

Central (2-0) also had a stellar pitching outing from Nick Hill, who entered for starter Ryan McIvor in the fifth.

In three innings, Hill struck out five and allowed two hits to collect the win.

Horizon (0-2) hitters first saw a fastball-slider combination from McIvor, who allowed seven hits, three earned runs and struck out seven.

Then they saw another fastball-slider combo, this time from Hill.

“I just worked a lot in the offseason to keep my motion straight and throw downhill,” Hill said.

And what did the win mean?

“It means we have more to come,” Hill said.

Catcher Kyle Serrano went 2 for 4 with two RBI and a pair of doubles for Central.

Also for the Warriors, Fransisco Rubio was 2 for 3 with an RBI.

Central tied the game at 3-3 after two innings, but waited until the seventh inning to put together the run manufactured in an unorthodox fashion.

Fortunately for Central, it resulted in a win instead of a tie.

The rule for the game was that there would have been no extra innings because the field has no lights and the tournament needed to run on time.

“We were sloppy, and if you’re this sloppy in a game you’ll lose big,” Fruita coach Ray McLennan said. “We weren’t prepared to play and it showed.”

This was all one day after Fruita blasted Horizon 15-5.

“Early season baseball is hard,” McLennan said. “We haven’t had a chance to practice — not to make any excuses there — but that was our second infield-outfield practice of the entire spring. But we’ve got to play through it and battle for a win.”